Resolution Review Time & A Neater Craft Room

Back in January, I made some resolution-type goals to follow in the crafting area of my life.  The year isn't quite half over, but I think it's a good time to review those goals and see how successful I am.

The first one was to finish some WIPs, and I haven't done that as of yet.  I have worked on some of them though and am happy with that bit of success. 

I also planned to stitch a Christmas ornament every month, but thought it would be better to amend that to every other month.  Two have been stitched so far, and I have kitted up the third!  Yay!  Success!  Going along with this goal was to try out different ornament-finishing techniques.  I haven't gotten to this yet.

Another resolution that has not been successful as of yet is learning to do some different crochet stitches.  BUT I did find a cool Facebook page called "Starting Chain" which has videos of different stitches.  Nice clear instructions and totally doable.  Gives me some inspiration and confidence to succeed at this one!

And what about the Pinterest project goal?  Am I the queen of that or what?!  I have managed to create a Pinterest-inspired each month of this year so far!  Look for more of these posts.

I have also been extremely successful with the craft room cleaning resolution!  It is now completely organized.  I went through stuff and did a purge of unneeded supplies.  Yes, I still have the box of pine cones.  Don't laugh.  I labeled boxes and containers and put items in their rightful places.  Now I know where everything is.

The closet.  Now I know what's in there!

Why didn't I do this sooner?

More awesome organization in the armoire.

Makes me want to go in there and create something!

An old bookcase is perfect for display and organizing materials.

The spool holder.  I just got a second one installed today.

Added a little "pretty" in the way of a colorful window valance.

So I'd say that the resolution to get organized was a complete success.  Now I just have to keep it that way.  Or somewhat that way.   I am finding that I do find things quicker, which makes crafting more pleasant and fun.  If I only have an hour to work on something, I'd rather spend that hour working on something than searching for something I need. 

The spool holder:  If someone had asked me a couple of months ago how many spools of thread I had, I would have guessed 25 or so.  This spool holder holds 60 - count 'em 60! - spools of thread.  And I have overflow.  Hence the installation of a second one.  Thank goodness for Joann's coupons!

I knew I wanted a bright and colorful valance and went back to fabricguru.com and found this happy fabric.  It was quick to sew and I enlisted the help of Mark to install the curtain rod just today!  I think I'm done sewing window treatments for a while.

Thanks for putting up with this wordy and extremely picture-heavy post.  I hope that you liked the little virtual tour of my craft room.  Visit again soon for some more crafty fun.

Other People's Creations - Supersize

Usually my "Other People's Creations" feature comes in a post alongside of some of my craftiness.  But today, I am devoting this entire post to some of the most amazing creativity I've seen in the past few months.  And none of it is mine.  This post is going to be picture heavy, so get ready to ooh and aah.

First off is the quilt that Stephanie made.  Just by looking at it, you would never know that this is her first quilting project. 

Steph took a quilting class at her local quilt store and you'll have to agree that this is an awesome first project!  Great color combination and beautiful work!

She also put her knitting skills to use in making this lovely knitted blanket.

Just look at the detail.  Steph will be donating this blanket to the veteran's hospital through the afghan group at her church.  That just warms my heart.

Let's move on to a little stitching.  No.  Make that a LOT of stitching.  Peggy, one of the Sisters In Stitches, brought her latest finish to Stitch Day last weekend.  We all had to stare at it for a while.

The design is "Alpine Seasons Crossings" by Chatelaine.  I've shown photos of this while in progress, but after 20 months of stitching, it's finished.

Note the beadwork.

Detail of the center.

You know what?  These pictures don't do this beautiful work of art justice.  But it's the best I can do in this space.  Absolutely gorgeous!  And wonderful inspiration for all of us stitchers.

Last is a gift that I received for my birthday from my sister, Sheila.  You know how I love getting handmade things and this is no exception.

It's a wall hanging that she made from squares and rectangles of textured and patterned polymer clay.  Isn't it awsomely pretty?  She crafted each piece and then attached them to a canvas. 

A little close-up detail.  I can see the imprint of Spirograph wheels and cookie press discs.

Her own flower design.

An imprint of some tiny branches, a few beads, and more cookie press discs.

She used a leaf from her yard to create the imprint on the right.

Another leaf imprint and a bead.

How lucky am I to receive such a wonderful gift?  I love everything about it - the colors, the shapes, the patterns.  The Spirograph imprint is meaningful because it was one of our favorite toys as kids, and Sheila still has our Spirograph.  Every single piece!  The cookie press disc imprints are also special.  Our mom made cookie press cookies every Christmas, and we continue the tradition.  I have hung my wall hanging on the wall at the entrance to my craft room, where I'll see it each day. 

So what do you think of my amazingly talented friends' creations?  As much as I like to stitch, sew and craft, I also like to see what other crafters are doing.  It's why I follow so many different blogs.  I find it inspiring, and I hope that you found this post inspiring too.  Now get out there and craft!

Home Decorating Fun

That title is a little misleading.  I didn't actually have fun doing this home decorating project.  But I do love the result.  You see, we've been in our home for about 5-1/2 years and it was just time to change the curtain valances in the family room and kitchen.  The ones that were on the windows when we moved in were ok.  They just weren't my favorite style and were a little dated looking.  So after spending the past 5-1/2 years slowly changing things for the better in our house, I made the decision that 2015 was when I'd start dealing with window treatment issues.

The first thing I found out was that home decorator fabric can be very expensive!  Luckily, I found a great online source for fabric:  Fabricguru.com.  They have a huge, amazing selection and affordable prices. 

I don't have a "before" picture, but here's the result of my hard work.

Look at Moxie.  It's always all about her.

I am not a big fan of working with huge pieces of fabric, which is why this was more of a work project for me rather than fun craftiness.  But on the plus side, I got exactly what I wanted and saved a ton of money.  I was also very fortunate to have a good curtain rod hanger.  Thanks, Mark! 

So now that I'm on a roll, I bought more fabric to make a valance for my craft room.  I went with a little wackier fabric for that one.   

Tomorrow is Stitch Day and I'm looking forward to doing a lot of stitching, something I've been neglecting lately with all of this home dec!  I've also started a beading project that I hope to work on a little today.  Keep checking back for photos of my progress!